Help My Middle Schooler Build Better Study Skills

8/14/2019 Help My Middle Schooler Build Better Study Skills

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Help My Middle

Schooler Build Better

Study Skills

Compiled by:


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Table of Contents

Help My Child Get Organized

Help Me Create a Study Plan with My Middle Schooler

Help My Child Listen Better

Teach My Child to Read Smarter

Teach My Child to Take Better Notes

Close the Gap with Homework

Help My Child Participate in a Group Project

Middle School Study Skills Resource List

Want a Long, Healthy Life? Stay in School

Are You Supporting Your Child's Middle School Learning?

www.EduGuide2 ONLINE EDUGUIDE


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Help My Middle Schooler Build Better Study SkillsDo I need this EduGuide?

Yes, if your middle school child is struggling with student homework and you want to give him or her the tools to succeed

academically, this guide is for you. Youll get ideas about organization, project management, note taking, reading for information, and

other middle school study skills to share with your child.

How does it work?

l Quizzes help you know where you stand.

l Articles give you the background information you need to make decisions.

l Real Life Stories tell how real parents and kids are dealing with situations like yours.l ShortCuts help you take immediate action. Choose one or go through them all.

What will I learn?

l Which middle school study skills my child will need to succeed in school

l How to stay involved with my childs schoolwork without taking over

l What steps to take at home to enhance my childs study, note-taking, listening, organization, and group-work skills

Quick Solutions

l What can I do in fifteen minutes? Take the quiz Are You Supporting Your Childs Middle School Learning? Ask your child

which ShortCuts he or she is most interested in studying in depth, and make a date to review that ShortCut together.

l What can I do in an hour? Help your child set up a study plan and organizational strategy for the school year based on tips

found in the relevant ShortCuts. Or review the books and Web sites in Middle School Study Skills Resource List.

http://www.eduguide.org/Parents-Library/Middle-School-Study-Skills-Resources-2363.aspxhttp://www.eduguide.org/Parents/TakeQuiz/tabid/114/view/StepTakeQuiz/quizId/53/Default.aspx


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Help My Child Get OrganizedIf you and your child are stressing over how to juggle student homework, chores, clubs, and friends, you need to teach some simple

organizational and time management tips. Experts who study time management and organization recommend these steps:

Schedule your childs life. Put a day planner at the top of the school supply list, and then show your child how to use it. First, write

down essential tasks, such as classes and soccer practice. Then add in the other activities for each day.

Set realistic timelines for assignments. Talk your child through the process of scheduling time for getting work done. Heres an

example of what you might say: Suppose you have a science lab report due in a week. You figure youll need about three hours to

complete the assignment. How many nights will you have to work on it? Remember, you'll probably have other homework and

assignments, too. If you can give the assignment a full two hours of attention one night, you'll have it done in two nights. But if you're

also working on an essay for English, the timeline for your lab report might have to change. After a few weeks of going through the

process together, begin to let your child take control of setting timelines for homework assignments.

Set priorities. Life is all about making choices. Your child might want to watch TV, but a science lab report is due tomorrow. What

takes priority: watching TV or writing the lab report? A good student recognizes that homework comes first and prioritizes time to

complete multiple assignments.

Teach your child to prioritize by asking the following questions:

1. Which assignment will take the most time?

2. Which assignment will take the least time?

3. Should I finish one assignment before I start the next, or should I do parts of each assignment every day until I finish all of

them?

Break big tasks into smaller subtasks and schedule each subtask. Break down big projects into smaller pieces. It's easier to

schedule smaller activities, especially when there are only two hours a day to work on several assignments. For example, your child

might break down the steps in completing a science lab report like this. Help your child talk through this process for a few

assignments until he or she is comfortable doing it independently.

1. Review assignment expectations, evaluation rubric, my observations, and data from the lab (ten minutes)

2. Draft conclusions based on data (one hour)

3. Write the purpose, hypothesis statement, materials following proper scientific format (forty minutes)

4. Create data tables and graphs (thirty minutes)

5. Put it all together (thirty minutes)

6. Read over the report to catch errors, review conclusions, etc. (ten minutes).

Give your child the tools to succeed. Get a desk for your middle schoolers room. A desk represents a tangible family commitment to

schoolwork and provides an excellent place for storage, too. Stock your home library with a dictionary, thesaurus, and possibly an

atlas. A good dictionary is worth the substantial price tag for hard cover, and thesauruses are available in paperback. Finally, buy a filebox or accordion folders so your child will have a place to store papers. A simple, accessible filing system will help him or her find

previous notes, tests, and reports quickly and easily.

Reward your child. If you see that your middle schooler is succeeding at sticking to the study schedule, give him or her a treat. It could

be shooting hoops for an hour, eating popcorn, surfing the Internet for fun, or playing a video game.



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Help Me Create a Study Plan with My Middle SchoolerAccording to a study by Joan Carver, an educational researcher and expert on helping students improve their middle school study

skills, the best study plans include seven characteristics. Good study plans are:

1. Simple. Good plans are uncomplicated.

2. Specific. Good plans state what you're going to do and where, when, and how you're going to do it.

3. Positive. Good plans state what you're going to do (not what you're going to stop doing).4. Repetitive. Good plans include something you can repeat frequently.

5. Independent. Good plans are based on you doing the work they dont depend on anyone else.

6. Immediate. Good plans can be started right away, usually within twenty-four hours.

7. Committed. Good plans include I will statements.

Encourage your child to write down the study plan. Why? Because when people write down a plan, they are more likely to do it.

How About an Example?

Here's an example of a study plan for completing an assigned reading:

I will read at least ten pages of Animal Farm between four and five every afternoon until Ive finished the book. I'll read in my bedroom

where it's quiet and there are no distractions. After I finish every page, I'll pause to ask myself what happened in the story. I'll answer

out loud to help me remember.

Now It's Your Turn

With your child, create a study plan for an assignment.

l Write down the plan.

l Make sure it includes Joan Carver's seven steps.

l Check it over.

Don't underestimate the power of making plans. Remember: if you fail to plan, you plan to fail.



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Help My Child Listen BetterCritical listening is an important study skill. If your child doesnt understand statements the teacher makes, his or her class notes will

suffer, and studying for tests will be harder. Share these critical listening studying tips with your child.

Listen with the intention of understanding.

To learn, you must understand what the teacher says. Use these strategies to engage your "listening ears.

l Try to repeat what the teacher says in your mind.

l Ask yourself, Does that make sense? If not, ask for clarification.

l Nod. Moving your head in agreement can engage you, especially if you learn best through movement.

l

Make connections between what the teacher says and what you already know. If you can't make a connection, ask the teacherto make one.

Listen for teacher cues.

Listen for key phrases that teachers use to emphasize important information. Here are examples of phrases that introduce

information you should write down:

l The three most important points are

l The chief cause of this is

l This happens because

l The reason for this is

l Remember that

l There are five characteristics of

l The result is

l They key message here is

Note: Dont try to teach all these critical listening strategies immediately. Choose one tip for your child to practice in class this week.

Add another as this one becomes a habit.



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Teach My Child to Read SmarterLearning to read smart in middle school will make high school academics much easier. These studying tips will help your middle

school child understand and remember what he or she reads in textbooks. For the next few reading assignments, go over one or two

tips per assignment to make sure your child understands them and is using them properly.

1. Preview the book. Read the contents page. Are there chapters? What are the titles? Is there a glossary at the end of the book

that defines terms? Is there an index at the end of the book that lists topics and the pages they are on? Dont forget: the wordsin the glossary and the topics in the index are listed in alphabetical order.

2. Turn to the assigned chapter. What is the title? What can you learn from the headings? Often headings give the important

ideas that will be covered in the chapter. Look at the illustrations and read the captions to get a fuller idea about the chapter.

Are there graphs, charts, maps, diagrams? What do they show? Graphic aids can sum up some kinds of information more

clearly than words alone can. Are there study questions at the end of the chapter? Look for the answers as you read.

3. What are you supposed to learn? Did your teacher give you an assignment sheet? Comprehension questions? A graphicorganizer? Before you begin reading, make sure youve got all the worksheets you need. Then fill them in as you read.

4. Underline, highlight, and write in the margins. If you are allowed to write in your book, highlight important ideas and write

comments and questions in the margins. If you arent, write comments and questions in a notebook along with the

corresponding page numbers.

5. Take notes. Paraphrasing key concepts will help you figure out how well you understand what youre reading. Summing up themost important ideas will help you recall what you read.

6. Draw a picture. Sometimes the best way to summarize information is by drawing a picture. Heres an example. Learning

about photosynthesis? Draw the sun and its rays hitting the leaf of a plant. Add details to show the process the plant uses to

turn light energy into glucose, oxygen, and water. You can draw diagrams to compare and contrast or to show cause and effect

relationships, scale, a series of events, a complex system, or a cycle.

7. Stop if you don't get it. If you don't understand a passage, reread it. Try to use the contextthe words and sentences around

the part you dont understandto figure it out. If youre still puzzled, decide how important that information seems to be. If its

important, ask the teacher or another student to explain the information to you.

8. As you read and after you've finished, ask yourself questions. Try these: What main point is the author making? Does thisinformation support the author's argument or contradict it? Why is this fact important to the author's overall message? What didI learn that I didn't know before? If somebody asked me to explain what I just read, what would I say?

9. Adjust your speed. Is the material difficult to understand or packed with facts? Slow down. Speed up if the material is familiar

and easy to understand.



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Teach My Child to Take Better NotesEfficient note taking is one of the most important study skills students need to succeed in school. These studying tips will help your

middle school student get more out of lectures and class handouts.

l If it's on the board, write it down. If teachers emphasize a point by writing on the board or using a projector, it's important

enough to go into your notebook.

l If it's on a handout, take notes in the margins. Don't rewrite information that's already in a handout. Instead, add notes toyourself and clarifications the teacher offers.

l Write down definitions and examples . Pay special attention to definitions and examples that illustrate and explain new

concepts.

l Don't try to write down everything the teacher says . You'll never keep up. Aim for notes that paraphrase the main concepts.

Write words the teacher emphasizes, key questions, and important points.

l Make up symbols and abbreviations to use in your notes . This can be fun, plus you'll save time when you use your ownshorthand system for taking notes. These note-taking tips from the University of Central Missouri can help you get off to a good

start.

l Pay extra attention at the beginning and at the end of class. Teachers usually introduce the lesson at the start of the class. If

you keep the agenda in mind as the class continues, you'll follow the lesson more easily. Teachers often review important

concepts at the end of class. During this review, be sure you've got the important concepts in your notes.

l Review your notes. Students who review their notes the same day they take themeven for just five minutesremember

more than students who don't look at their class notes until they're studying for a test.

l Keep track of dates. Put the date on every page. If your binder pops open and your notes spill out, the dates will help you get

the pages back in order. Dates can also help you remember what you learned when.

http://www.ucmo.edu/Documents/abbrevfornotetaking.pdf


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Close the Gap with HomeworkStay Involved without Nagging

EduGuide Staff

"The worst thing a kid can say about homework is that it is too hard. The worst thing a kid can say about a game is it's too easy."

Henry Jenkins, MIT

Teenagers will often resist parent involvement in education when it comes to their student homeworkeven though they ultimately

benefit from it. How can you keep your teens from seeing this involvement as just another form of nagging? Try some of these family

ideas.

Ask Questions about Your Students Homework

Talking about assignments helps your teenager think about them in a more critical fashion. Try these conversation starters:

l Chemistry: I never really understood the periodic table of elements. How does it work?

l Middle and High School Literature: I never read ______ in school. What is it about? or I remember reading that in school.

What did you think of the main character? She always reminded me of Aunt Mildred.

l Math: How is that math used in real life?

l Social Science: How could you turn that idea into a business or money-making venture?

l Writing: With texting, blogs, and social networking, writing seems to be back in style. Do you think all this online writing helps

improve writing skills or does it hinder them? Where do you think youll do the most writing after school is over? Do you find you

write differently in different places?

l Foreign language: Could you teach me the phrases I would need to know if I were to visit Paris? or How is German grammardifferent from English grammar?

l History: Do you think we could learn anything today from how the average German citizens responded to Hitler? Do you think

we could be fooled by propaganda and charisma the way they were then?

Connect Middle and High School Academics to Real Life

Find ways to connect your teens student homework to real life experiences. Here are some ideas:

l Is your son studying the relationship between speed and distance? Ask him to estimate how long it will take to get to his best

friends house the next time you drive there. Heap on praise for the right answer. Ask how long it would take if you went five

miles per hour slower. What would he need to know to calculate that?

l Is your daughter studying a play by Shakespeare? Do the characters remind her of people she knows? Why? Has she everseen anyone in similar situations as to those the Shakespeare characters are in?

l Is your son studying about the American Revolution? Is your daughter learning accounting? Talk about peoples attitudes

toward taxes throughout the years. Show them your income tax forms and see if they can fill the form out using your W-2s.

Does the tax seem fair to them? Can they list what taxes pay for in your community? What services might they be willing to give

up in exchange for lower taxes? What services would they like to get in exchange for higher taxes?

l Is your teenager taking physics? Spend an afternoon making paper airplanes together.

l Is your child studying probability? Spend an evening playing dice games such as Liars dice (also known as Bluff), Yahtzee,

Poker Dice, Craps, or Ship, Captain, and Crew. As you play, talk about what the chances are for particular numbers to come up

with each roll. Make a chart with predictions based on probability laws and then record actual rolls.

l Is your teenager in choir or band? Put the radio on scan. In the few seconds that each song is on the radio, try to identify what



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instruments are being played, what the voice range of the singers are or even what key or measure the song is being played in

(depending on your teens level of knowledge and your own).

Teaching Makes a Great Study Skill

One of the best ways to learn is by teaching. Pick a subject that your child is studying in school and ask him to create a test covering a

variety of objectives in his current unit. (For example, if the subject is history, ask the child to write questions from throughout the

chapters that they are working on. If the subject is English, have them write questions on whatever grammatical topics theyve been

studying or books theyve been reading.)

Encourage them to write 20 to 25 multiple-choice and short answer questions. After youve taken the test, have them grade it andprovide correct answers for anything you got wrong. You can then even ask them to prepare a mini-lesson for you to teach you the

information you got wrong. This will boost their confidence while giving them an excellent chance to review their material.

Whichever of these things you choose to do, youll be modeling for your student just how important academics are.



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Help My Child Participate in a Group ProjectMiddle school learning often includes group projects. One purpose of group projects is to learn how to work well with others, but your

child may feel that just the opposite is happening.

Susan Mulcaire, a teacher, mother, and author of The Middle School Students Guide to Ruling the World, recommends the following

steps for participating successfully in group projects.

l Communicate with others in the group. Students should share e-mail addresses and phone numbers so they cancommunicate easily with each other and avoid but they never told me excuses.

l Appoint a project manager. This team member keeps a written record of everything the group decides and makes sure that

every team member has a copy of the plan. The project manager also keeps the group focused during team meetings.

However, this persons job does not include bossing everyone else around.

l Share ideas. Group members should listen to each others suggestions and ideas without putting them down or letting one

student take over the projects direction.l Plan carefully. At the first meeting, group members should review the entire project, which should include going over the

teachers instructions, creating a schedule (being careful to include potential schedule busters such as sports practices,

holidays, and so on), making a list of supplies, and finding out each members talents and skills.

l Define tasks. Group members need to know which part of the project each person is responsible for, as well as what steps

each part includes and when it is due.

l Share the load. A common complaint about group projects is that one person gets stuck doing most of the work. Review the

tasks and the number of group members and divide the work fairly among all the members.

l Set meetings and group goals. Frequent meetings will help keep the group on track, ensure that each part of the project is

getting done, and solve small problems before they become big ones. This downloadable Group Project Organizer will help

keep middle school students on track while working on group projects. You can help your child complete his or her part of a

group project by providing the following support.

l Go over the assignment with your child: when the project is due, what it comprises, and how it will be evaluated. The

assignment sheet should clearly explain expectations and evaluation criteria, so be sure to read it carefully. Have your child

clarify any unclear instructions with the teacher.l Ask what your child already knows about the subject. Calling on prior knowledge primes the brain for deeper thinking and

boosts confidence as the child realizes how much he or she already knows.

l Ask how your child will find information about the topic. Have him or her make a list. When every resource has been

exhausted, be a resource for your child.

l If your childs part of the project requires library research, let him or her lead the way. Help write down questions for the

librarian about where to find information on the topic. Observe as your child searches the Internet. Explain why some sites

provide more reliable information than others.

l Help your child make a schedule for completing the project . Put the schedule in a prominent placeon the family calendar,

the bulletin board, or the fridge so that forgetting the deadlines will be impossible.

http://www.middleschoolguide.com/pdf/GroupProjOrg.pdfhttp://www.middleschoolguide.com/


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Middle School Study Skills Resource ListElizabeth Johnson

For additional information on improving your childs middle school study skills, the following books and Web sites offer useful tips and

strategies to improve grades and enhance middle school learning.

The Middle School Students Guide to Ruling the Universe (Through Work Management and Organizational Skills) This workbook, by

mom and educator Susan Mulcaire, provides students with numerous strategies to succeed in middle school. An instructors guide

for teachers is also available. The companion Web site for the book,

www.middleschoolguide.com, offers downloadable forms and checklists excerpts from the book and tips, links, and articles related

to middle school education.

The Essential Parenting Guide to Navigating Middle School and Beyond Two Michigan moms, Julie Mack and Rosemary Parker, wrote

this eighty-page guide for parents embarking on the middle school adventure. It focuses on strategies to promote academic success

and college readiness for young teens. The book is available from the Kalamazoo Gazette.

Mangrum-Stricharts Study Skills Guide-Middle Schoolis written for students and presents information in chunks and bullets, with

age-appropriate illustrations. Topics include learning styles, reading for information, building vocabulary, taking notes, math wordproblems, study groups, and taking tests. A free teachers guide is included with the student book. Visit Mangrum-Stricharts Web site.

Eagle Hill Middle School in Manlius, New York, has a Study Skills for Middle School page on its Web site with concise information and

Web links for important middle school study skills, such as making a plan, getting organized, taking notes, and managing time. Visit

their site.

Video Jug offers a series of online interviews with private tutor Alexa Hale, who talks about various middle school study skills in short

(under a minute) video clips. Visit Video Jug for clips on making time to study, keeping track of assignments, organizing notes, and

using a glossary as a study tool.

Elizabeth Johnson is a Lansing, Michigan-based freelance writer and EduGuide contributor.

http://www.videojug.com/interview/middle-school-study-skillshttp://www.fmschools.org/eagle-hill.cfm?subpage=1328http://www.mangrum-strichart.com/study-skills-guides/middle-school-english.phphttp://gazettestore.com/store/index.php3http://www.middleschoolguide.com/


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Want a Long, Healthy Life? Stay in SchoolHealth Linked to Education Level, Says Issue Brief from the Commission to Build aHealthier America

Sara jo Schwartz

A September 2009 report from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundations Commission to Build a Healthier America points to mountains

of evidence that links years of schooling with better personal health and wellness. Here are examples from two studies: college grads

live at least five years longer than non-high-school graduates 26.7 percent of white non-Hispanic college graduates rate their health

as less than very good versus 69.4 percent of white non-Hispanic high-school dropouts who do.

Not only are better-educated people healthier than less educated ones, but the children of people with more education are healthier,too. For instance, babies of mothers who are high school dropouts are twice as likely to die before the age of one as are the babies of

college grads children whose parents dropped out of high school are six times more likely to be in poor or fair health than are the kids

of parents who graduated from college.

The report describes three ways education level links to health: health knowledge and behaviors, employment and income, and social

and psychological factors. Lets take a look at each category.

Health Knowledge and Behaviors

Common sense suggests that the more people know and the clearer they think, the better their health choices will be. Sure enough,

research has found that greater educational attainment has been associated with healthful eating, getting exercise, and avoiding risk

factors such as drinking excessively and smoking. In addition, better-educated people are quicker to change risky health behaviors in

response to new evidence than less-educated people are.

Employment and Income

We all know that more education is the key to higher wages, but the actual numbers are quite startling. According to U.S. Census

Bureau information, high school graduates lifetime earnings (in 1999 dollars) are $1.2 million, compared with $2.1 million for collegegraduates and $4.4 for those with professional degrees. A comfortable income helps people get the health care they need when they

need it. Wealthier people are also able to live in safer neighborhoods with access to recreational facilities and other services,

including grocery stores stocked with reasonably priced, healthful food.

Low-wage workers, on the other hand, have fewer resources to cope with medical, child-care, and other day-to-day difficulties.

Understandably, they experience greater stress as a result. They also live in more dangerous neighborhood with fewer parks, well-

stocked grocery stores, and other health-enhancing features.

Social and Psychological Factors

Studies reveal that better-educated people feel more control over their lives than less-educated people do. This sense of control

encourages skills and habits such as problem solving and perseverance that lead to better health care and outcomes. More

education is also linked to higher social standing, another factor strongly associated with better health. Social support is yet another

way that education is related to health. People with more education have greater social support, both emotional and practical, andgreater social support is linked to better physical and mental health.



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Are You Supporting Your Child's Middle School Learning?

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Help My Middle Schooler Build Better Study Skills

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